Hosting company I can use for CGI version?

[vision]

Hi,
I need good web hosting company which support binary CGI where I can upload Zoom Pro CGI version. Any suggestions?
thanks

[wrensoft]

I am not sure what country you are in, but I assume the USA.

We use Pair, http://www.pair.com for our main sites, www.wrensoft.com and www.passmark.com.

Their cheapest package doesn't do CGI but the other ones do.

They run BSD Unix servers and we know Zoom works without any problems on their servers. They are not the cheapest but very stable and responsive to problems.

-----
David
Wrensoft

[pjtester]

Would anyone else care to recommend a hosting provider which has been proved to be capable of running the CGI version?

If you've got the v5 CGI version up and running please let me know which hosting provider you're using.

I use Fasthosts in UK and I'm having no joy.

Thanks

[petevick]

I use Freeola in the UK, their support is second to non. Hosting and email is free with there broadband packages. They support CGI and PHP

[wrensoft]

Another way to find which services people are using is to just search the web.
If you search on Google for, inurl:search.cgi "zoom search" (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3Asearch.cgi+%22zoom+search%22)

It turns up 44,000 results. You can then trace them back to the host with tracert and DNS details.

I don't think there are really 44,000 sites with the CGI but it might be a start. Other people might also have a suggestion.

[pjtester]

Another way to find which services people are using is to just search the web.
If you search on Google for, inurl:search.cgi "zoom search" (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3Asearch.cgi+%22zoom+search%22)

It turns up 44,000 results. You can then trace them back to the host with tracert and DNS details.

I don't think there are really 44,000 sites with the CGI but it might be a start. Other people might also have a suggestion.

Brilliant! Thanks - plenty of choice!

[pjtester]

Brilliant! Thanks - plenty of choice!

They all appear to be Linux hosting providers. I can't find a UK-based Windows hosting provider who have the CGI version working. Must be some out there? Ideas please.

[wrensoft]

Yes, CGI comes from the Unix / Apache world. CGI originally came from the "NCSA HTTPd" web server, which is now dead. But Apache was initially based on the code from HTTPd. The Perl programming language also made heavy use of CGI. (Zoom CGI is not written in Perl by the way. It is a compiled binary from C++ code)

Windows people never had much to do with Perl nor CGIs. So as a generalization CGI support in IIS / Windows is not as good as Apache / Linux.

Note that if you have full ASP.NET support on a Windows server you can call the search.cgi from .NET using this wrapper (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/aspdotnet.html).

[petevick]

They all appear to be Linux hosting providers. I can't find a UK-based Windows hosting provider who have the CGI version working. Must be some out there? Ideas please.see my post #4 ;)

[Ray]

Took a quick look at the Fasthosts page and it appears that they actually have support for "Compiled CGI" on their Windows packages, according to this:
http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/hosting/compare/

[pjtester]

see my post #4 ;)

Thanks Pete, but I noticed that your site uses the php version.

[pjtester]

Took a quick look at the Fasthosts page and it appears that they actually have support for "Compiled CGI" on their Windows packages, according to this:
http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/hosting/compare/

I've been trying to get the CGI version up and running with Fasthosts but get this message

CGI Error
The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers.


My script is at http://www.heswall.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Fasthosts tell me that permissions on the cgi-bin folder are set to the chmod equivalent of 775 which they say is sufficient to run a cgi executable.

I notice that when the Zoom Search Indexer attempts to ftp the index file it attempts to change permissions to +rx which I believe is equvalent to a chmod 777. It fails at this point.

Fasthosts won't allow 777 permissions on their servers.

So thats why I'm looking elsewhere. But if you don't think I need to please let me know.

Thanks

Phil Tester

[petevick]

Thanks Pete, but I noticed that your site uses the php version.yes it does, but Freeola also support CGI

[wrensoft]

775 permission should be enough.

There are a whole bunch of other reasons (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_cgi.html)why the CGI might not initially work however.

The most common problems are,

+ You have not uploaded the CGI file in binary mode with your FTP client (NOT ascii or text mode). If you are using Zoom to upload file, this is not the problem.

+ You have not uploaded your search files to a location on the server that has permission to run CGI files. Many hosting companies only allow CGI programs to run from within the "cgi-bin" directory on the server.

+ You have selected the Windows CGI, but your host is Linux or you have selected the Linux CGI, but your host is Windows.

+ Bugs in IIS (if you are using IIS) (http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63)

If this a Windows server or Apache? Can you Telnet to the host?

[pjtester]

775 permission should be enough.

If this a Windows server or Apache? Can you Telnet to the host?

Its a Windows 2003 server. No I can't Telnet to it.

The problem seems to relate to file permissions. I get this message when the indexer uploads the files.

FTP Upload error:
Failed to set file permission for search.cgi to ugo +rx

If its a permissions issue I don't suppose the aspx wrapper would help?


Phil

[wrensoft]

The Unix chmod permissions, like 755 and 777, don't really apply to Windows. Windows server has a different method of setting permissions that don't map very well to the chmod 777 scheme. Most FTP programs can't set permission on a Windows server.

Which means that if you are hosting in Windows on a shared hosting platform, you need a friendly hosting company to take the time to get the permissions right for you (and this is the real problem Fasthosts are too big and profit focused to care).

The wrapper might help still. With the wrapper the web server is not calling the CGI anymore, so it removes a layer of permissions problems.

As a short term solution you could put the search function on cheap Linux hosting and leave your main site on Windows.

[pjtester]

The wrapper might help still. With the wrapper the web server is not calling the CGI anymore, so it removes a layer of permissions problems.



Glad to report a happy ending. I used the aspx wrapper to call search.cgi and it works fine.

Thanks for all your help.

Phil